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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) nowadays is constantly evolving and drastically impacting different fields of human activity, such as higher education. University education, due to ICT, was able to move from the traditional teaching and learning practices to e-Learning. That is, delivering education to the learner regardless of place and time via leveraging technology, such as computer-mediated platforms, based on synchronous video conferencing. The next generation of computer-mediated communication tools is ready to facilitate synchronous holographic communication among users. However, such tools have not been designed specifically for the field of university education and have not been taken into consideration the design requirements and needs of users to be successfully integrated to the e-Learning model.     Hence, this master’s thesis study explores the perceptions of higher education teachers and students about the potential use of holographic ICT tools in the context of e-Learning, as well as their desired characteristics in regard to the design of such tools. For this, an interpretive qualitative ethnographic research was conducted. Data was collected through passive observations and focus group discussions with purposively selected university teachers and students, and by leveraging the method of Thinking Aloud. The collected data was subjected to thematic analysis to conclude to seven themes, which represent the findings of this study. These research findings were discussed in relation to the research aim, research questions and the theoretical framework including the approach of User-Centered Design.     The research findings showed that university teachers and students acknowledge the potential of the holographic ICT tools and have an interest to try them out in the context of e-Learning activities. The potential use of holographic ICT tools was described as improving the quality of communication between teachers and students when on distance; delivering education globally and making it more accessible; lifting the current technological limitations and enriching the e-Learning practices. Some concerns, though, in regard to the use of such tools were expressed in terms of complexity and disturbances. The research findings also showed the university teachers’ and students’ desired characteristics in regard to the design of such tools, which include interoperability with the other systems used in e-Learning activities; high quality of human and non-human holographic representations; and indicators in holographs of the participants’ status, along with additional interactive features. In addition, the university teachers and students suggested the holographic ICT tools to be designed as a pair of comfortable augmented reality (AR) glasses, which can be easy to control and can be connected to personal devices. Finally, it was suggested to include main tools of teaching and learning activities -such as whiteboard, screensharing, slides presentation-; and multiple modes that can be used depending on the users’ teaching and learning needs.  Thus, the research outcome contributes theoretically to the research field of informatics by providing insights and new knowledge about the potential use of novel holographic ICT tools for e-Learning. The research outcome also contributes practically to designers, developers, technology companies, and other interested stakeholders as it shortens the knowledge gap regarding the design principles of holographic ICT tools and their use cases within the context of education, and provides suggestions regarding their design from a user-centered approach.

<p>The hyperpersonal model predicts computer-mediated communication can allow for relationships formed in that medium to become more intimate than their offline counterparts. Specifically, it combines ideas first presented in social information processing (i.e., that the volume of information exchanged over time within computer-mediated relationship is more important than how long it takes to exchange that volume) with the technological affordances given to the sender, receiver, message, and channel in order to create a feedback loop of assumed good intentions within the CMC medium that allows for online relationships to surpass face-to-face relationships in terms of their emotional intimacy. Existing research has shown that a variety of factors influence how people feel about an online friend, including the richness of the medium, personality, and the amount of emotional self-disclosure that had been exchanged within the relationship. However, studies to date have inconsistently measured self-disclosure and largely rely on survey or experimental methods rather than the examination of existing text-based datasets. This study proposes and tests a model that the relationship between an initial person’s emotional self-disclosure and the reciprocal self-disclosure the friend responds with in a CMC medium is mediated by the degree to which their language converges, or the degree to which they empathize with each other, and is moderated by the volume of text exchanged by the pairs during their relationship. The study uses a corpus of the text messages exchanged between 2,174 pairs of people. The results indicate that there is an indirect relationship between initial self-disclosure and reciprocal self-disclosure which is mediated by is empathetic convergence. Furthermore, the volume of information exchanged may also play a role in some of these interactions. This study offers implications and suggestions for refining the hyperpersonal model to be applicable in the current digital zeitgeist.</p>

This research investigates how a communication system could support urban gardeners intheir activities. By looking at agriculture not as a mere activity for food production but as arich social practice, this research addresses gardeners dual need of acquiring knowledge and develop social relationship.Findings from an ethnographic research of two local agriculture communities are described.Participatory design has been used to identify design opportunities and co-create conceptideas. Prototypes have been used to evaluate key aspects and refine the final concept. Byinviting intended users to take an active role during the entire design process, the result of this research is grounded not only in the theory but also on people's aspirations and realexperience.

Struktur är en viktig del av att möjliggöra kommunikation. Om informationen levereraspå ett ostrukturerat eller direkt felaktigt sätt kan det bli omöjligt för mottagaren attgöra sig en sammanhängande bild av hur informationen hänger samman. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om, och på vilket sätt, informationens struktur påverkar hur användare diskuterar i datormedierade kommunikationssystem inomsociala medier som bloggar, communities, forum och tidningars kommentarsfält.Med hjälp av en inventering togs de vanligast förekommande designstrukturernafram och med utgång från dessa gjordes en studie av hur användarna kommenterar.Resultatet visar att designen av ett kommentarssystem verkar påverka användarnasrespons i hög grad beroende av diskussionstrådens utformning, antal visade svar och placeringen av dess olika element. Utifrån detta rekommenderas därför skilda strukturella designer beroende av om syftet med att ha en kommentarsfunktion är att skapa en dialog, en diskussion eller att enbart få återkoppling. / Structure is an important aspect of communication. If the structure of the informationdelivery is faulty or non-existent the user might not be able to form a coherent historyof a topic. Due to messages not being sufficiently organized to provide context this might cause information overload. The aim of this thesis is to investigate if, andhow, the structure of information-presentation in computer-mediatedcommunication-systems affect how the users communicate within social media andinteractive sites such as blogs, social networking-communities, forum boards and on-line magazines' commenting sections.First an inventory of the most common design structures was made and then acontextual study of the user comments within these structures was performed.The results show that the design of a commenting system seem to affect the userresponse to a high degree depending on the threads design; number of shownprevious comments and placing of the different elements. From these findingsdifferent designs are recommended depending on the purpose of the commentingsection is to generate a dialogue, discussion or to just get feedback.